For any other squad – a less-experienced or certainly less-tenacious one – an unfulfilling half of soccer could derail a season.

No. 3 Highland pulled out a win over No. 6 Goodyear Millennium, 4-3, in a shootout of the Division I girls soccer state tournament quarterfinals on Saturday.

No. 2 Xavier advanced to the quarterfinals of the Division I girls soccer state tournament with its 6-0 win over visiting No. 15 Trevor Browne. The Gators will host No. 10 Chaparral at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Here are Saturday's championship matchups (Friday for Div. III) for the girls soccer state tournaments.

2013 Girls Soccer State Tournaments

DIVISION I

Beginning this week, a new wrinkle in the high school sports postseason picture will unfold for the first time, and it'll be met with, predictably, unpredictability.

2011-2012 Girls Soccer State Tournaments

Division I, II, III, & IV State Tournament (24 team bracket): Four (4) teams from each of the three sections for a total of 12 teams will earn an automatic bid based on how they finish within their sectional tournament. The final 12 spots will be based on overall seeding. The bracket will be seeded according to overall seeding of the 24 teams. Teams seeded #1 to #8 will get a first round bye.

Who’s ready to make the leap?

During the regular season, the four games between the Corona del Sol and Mountain Pointe girls basketball teams were competitive through much of the fourth quarter.

Schedule: First and second rounds are Saturday at site of top-8 seed; Quarterfinals are Tuesday at higher seed; Semifinals are Thursday at Gilbert H.S.; Championship match is May 12 at 7 p.m. at Gilbert H.S.

DIVISION I

Here are the East Valley schools’ preseason football scrimmages, which will be continuously updated. Coaches should submit their scrimmage information (date, opponent, location, time) to Mark Heller at mheller@evtrib.com

The 14th annual Desert Mountain Invitational features most of the top softball schools in Arizona.

2012 Girls Soccer State Tournament Semifinals

Highland’s journey to its first girls soccer state championship in 2011-2012 was years in the making, but could a repeat merely take months?

Here is information for upcoming football scrimmages around the East Valley. We'll update this list as more trickle in:

For 47 consecutive games now, no team has found out a way to stop the St. Mary’s girls basketball team.

In case it wasn’t difficult enough to navigate through three months of games, tournaments and a double-elimination state tournament, it is now.

Here are the first-round playoff matchups for the 2012 football state tournament.

Horizon set the tone for the season early by winning the championship of the 21st annual Dobson-Marcos softball tournament Saturday at Marcos de Niza H.S.